Introductory Program Course Descriptions

The Certificate in Applied Web Development and Design program is an instructor-led program that is delivered online over approximately 780 hours. The nine courses in the program are as follows:

IBDE100: Program Orientation
This course orients participants to navigating the program website, gaining familiarity with all assignment completion and submission processes, local and remote server operations, and online study procedures such as contacting instructors for help or feedback. Participants install and test all required software and training materials. Daily virtual classroom sessions and basic hands-on exercises steer students toward learning success.

IBDE102: Introduction to the Internet
This course will provide participants with an understanding of how the internet began and how it became what it is today. Learners will also discover where it all started by examining the history of the computer and the technology involved. Additional topics include security and social networking.

IBDE104: Site Theory and Design
This is a pre-planning course designed to provide participants with insight into the many thought processes involved in planning a website. Learners will gain a solid understanding of what is viewed in today's industry as standards compliant and professional, with a particular focus on accessibility in design. This course will also demonstrate the steps required in planning the design, layout, and development of an online e-commerce presence.

IBDE108: Advanced Web Graphics ~ Photoshop CC
In this course participants will further enhance their hands-on Photoshop skills as they explore in greater detail many of the tools and effects introduced in IBDE106. Learners will complete several creative projects including the design of composite images for use on the web and in print. Learners will also explore how to use Photoshop to lay out the visual elements of a website, as well as for image slicing and optimization for the web.

IBDE110: HTML and CSS Programming
Participants will learn the basics of coding web pages by hand. This course will provide learners with the skills required to create web pages using HTML5/XHTML programming and introduce cascading style sheets (CSS). Developing the basic "hand-coding" skills will enable learners to modify web pages developed with any web authoring tool, thus building a strong foundation for the development and fast editing of any website. This is a very beneficial ability regardless of the web authoring program used. There is a strong focus on teaching students to adhere to the W3C industry standards in XHTML, HTML5, and CSS as well as designing with accessibility in mind.

IBDE112: Site Design with Libraries and Frameworks
This course gives participants an introduction to developing standards-compliant, mobile websites using a code editor of their choice in combination with Bootstrap. Bootstrap is one of the most popular HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frameworks for developing responsive, mobile-first websites. The framework contains HTML- and CSS-based design templates for typography, forms, buttons, navigation, and other interface components, as well as JavaScript extensions. Participants will learn how to build a site with Bootstrap, manage the files within, and work with CSS to further customize the designs to their liking. This course will also cover combining Bootstrap with other libraries and bringing a Bootstrap-powered site to a production server.

IBDE114: Website Marketing and Maintenance
In this course participants will learn how to build effective keyword phrases to implement as part of their web marketing strategies. Search engine rankings play a key role in the success of any online business and, therefore, such strategies are given a heavy emphasis in this course. Topics include the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), how search engines work, how to build keywords, how to implement keywords strategically, factors influencing ranking, SEO information and guidelines of Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, and analyzing the competition.

IBDE116: Instructor-supervised Final Project Website (Practicum)
Students create their own fully customized website, search engine optimized and ready to accept payments from PayPal—the world's most used and securely encrypted shopping cart and payment gateway. Students may create a site for themselves or for anyone they know; for example, a client who wishes to have the student maintain their website for them upon completion of the Certificate in Applied Web Development and Design program.

Established web designers and graduates of our 6-month Introductory Program are also eligible to sign up for the Advanced Program we offer.